Emily Ratajkowski Opens Up About Marriage Collapse and Post-Divorce Dating in New Essay

In a lengthy personal essay published by The Cut on June 12, 2026, Emily Ratajkowski, 35, reflected on the disintegration of her marriage to filmmaker Sebastian Bear-McClard, whom she wed in 2018. She wrote that the couple stopped having sex six months after the birth of their son Sylvester and separated less than a year later, describing the collapse as feeling "both instant and excruciatingly slow." Ratajkowski said she had long feared becoming a single mother, viewing the label as an "insult" tied to a loss of freedom and choices. After the split, she described entering a dating "mania" in which she consciously adopted a "supervillain" persona — drawing on figures like Poison Ivy and Catwoman — to project self-sufficiency, only to later recognize she was acting "just as misguided and vulnerable" as in her earlier years. She also noted that some men she dated were specifically attracted to her status as a mother, which she found unsettling. Ratajkowski and Bear-McClard's divorce was finalized in 2025; Bear-McClard was separately accused of sexual misconduct with minors in a 2023 Variety exposé, allegations he has not publicly addressed. The essay is consistent with Ratajkowski's broader body of writing on female identity and empowerment, including her 2021 collection "My Body."